THIS is earth-shattering: the number of foreign workers in Malaysia is so huge that they outnumber the capacity crowd at the Malaysia Cup football final at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil recently by a whopping 67 times. Yes, super colossal — a quarter of the country’s entire population.

PUTRAJAYA: Newly appointed Immigration Department Director-General Datuk Mustafa Ibrahim has vowed to flush out over 500,000 illegal immigrants employed in the country by unscrupulous business operators.

Immigration Department deputy director-general (Control division) Datuk Sakib Kusmi said the department gave its assurance that action would not be taken against employers who voluntarily hand over illegal immigrants in their employment.